The embattled 24-year-old Councilman is publicly voicing his concerns over Blacksburg policy more and more, being the lone Nay vote on a measure to raise resources for local emergency services by charging out-of-town uninsured patients.
The trial date for his Election Fraud case is looming,
with the jury trial set for early 2025 and another motions hearing Dec 17.
Twelve months ago, I was given the greatest honor of my life when my neighbors elected me to
Blacksburg’s Town Council. Now, as I prepare to begin the second year of my term, I want to
share with you one of the most important lessons I’ve learned during these last twelve months:
Kindness is the greatest possible tool of public service — and it makes public servants out of all of us.
Kindness requires empathy. And empathy requires imagination — the ability to imagine the
depth and topography of someone else’s soul, the ability to imagine another human being’s hope
or pain so acutely that it could just as easily be one’s own. Imagination, like kindness and
empathy, is a key component of problem solving and is necessary to improve our world.
But I’m not writing to extoll the virtues of leadership or politics. I’m writing to share how
grateful I am to see public servants in everyone reading this column, because I see these
hallmarks of public service — kindness, empathy, and imagination — in so many of my neighbors.
It looks differently for each of us, but we are all public servants in our own ways.
Public servants are called to take up the crosses borne by all of the people they serve, and to
share in their hope and their pain. We bear the crosses of our neighbors with them, whether or
not they are necessarily kind, empathetic, or imaginative in return — and the more difficult we
find that task, the more important it is that we do it. How many times have we felt the sting of
pain in witnessing someone’s grief? How many times have we felt joy in witnessing someone’s
celebration? I contend that seeing someone’s humanity in this way is itself public service.
Now, there are those who see kindness or empathy as synonymous with weakness, and see
cruelty as synonymous with toughness — but in truth, it requires inimitable grit and strength to
maintain kindness and optimism and joy, especially in times of our own hardship.
In case no one has told you this lately, you hold within you the kindness and empathy and
imagination that moves our world forward, no matter how grey the skies are or how grim the
latest breaking news seems to be. Between taking the kids to school, running errands,
and mowing the lawn, everyone serves others in some way. Even when life seems
busy and out of control, you make the world better simply by living in it with kindness.
One of the greatest gifts of being a Councilman is having the chance to meet so many
of you. To all of you who have put a piece of yourself into caring for your neighbor,
loving our town, and bringing kindness, empathy, and imagination into this world:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve Blacksburg alongside you.
